A
Message To Muslims In America On Patriotism And Allegiance
(For US Imperialism)

01 May 2011

By El-Hajj Mauri' Saalakhan

Assalaamu Alaikum

The Muslim-American
leadership response to the reported killing of Usama
bin Laden has become a litmus test on patriotism and
allegiance
(for US imperialism). Unfortunately, in far too many
cases the response coming from Muslim-American leaders
(most of them immigrants) have failed to measure up to
the Islamic standard on Truth, Justice and Mercy.

Consequently, while these
cumulative responses (to the latest controversy to
come our way) might
appearto
be politically correct, the example they
set - in terms of what Islam theoretically represents
as a real alternative to a morbidly polluted secular
paradigm - leaves much to be desired.

In short, on the dawah front,
the Muslim community is failing miserably, thus far,
to both seize and take positive advantage of this
golden moment in time...and what a profoundly
unfortunate waste it is.

As a little food for thought (for
the purpose of clarity), let me share a little note
that I received from one of our sisters; followed by a
very important, and highly relevant, page out of
recent history.

Assalam-o-alaikum, Brother
Salaakhan:

I am reflecting upon how Saddam
Hussein was implicated to be behind the September 11
event and he was accused of harboring weapons of mass
destruction, only to find out after his execution that
Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction. Later on the
president acknowledged how he acted on the
misinformation given to him.

In one of the languages-Punjabi spoken in Pakistan, a
poet says, "if your enemy dies, do not rejoice for
even your beloved is going to die."

How would it feel when your beloved will die? This man
was a human being. He was someone's father, son,
husband, brother, nephew, friend...... We as Muslims
don't rejoice on a fellow Muslim's death. We pray for
him.

At the end of the day, Allah is the one who is the
Ultimate Source of Justice and Allah is the One who
knows who is going to Hell or Heaven. We are not the
ones to judge. At the end of the day we know another
Muslim was killed. We are no one to judge him as good
or bad for Allah is the One to decide upon that. We
need to do our part, that is pray for his forgiveness,
as this is one of his 6 rights upon us for just being
a Muslim. We should have offered Salatul Janazah for
him.

We need to focus on the example of our Prophet (PBUH)
how he conducted himself after the Battle of Badr upon
the dead corpses of the most deadly opponents of
Islam. He (PBUH) was in a pensive mood and only felt
remorse for them, and had hoped, if only they could
have had faith in One Allah.

Our job is to educate all around us as to what is
Islam and what is it like to be in a state of
submission to Allah.

"Inna Lillahe wa inna ilaihe raajay oon"

Wassalam

Our sister's message is right on
point! Now I invite you to reflect over a
historic speech (highly relevant to these times) that
was delivered by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.,
at the height of the Vietnam War. Dr. King received an
avalanche of criticism for this speech - from both the
political establishment and from most if not all of
the major media. There were also spineless "leaders"
within the Civil Rights
Movement who began to distance themselves
from Dr. King after he delivered this speech and the
blow back set in.

As difficult as it was back then,
history proved that Dr. King was on the right side of
history. The message for us today is simple. History
is cyclical: names and faces change, but the
pattern of human behavior remains the same. Which side
of history will we be on when the pages have dried?

With that said, here is the
message of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., from
April 4, 1967.